Easiest Way To Tidy Up My PC??

candlestick

candlestick

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Afternoon folks,

I've been trying to speed up my P4 desktop that is now the secondary computer, so I've stuck a stick of RAM in it, and deleted all unnecessary programs from the harddisk before defragging the harddrive. Even having done that, it seems pretty slow, so I reckon fresh install of Windows XP is on the cards.

What would be the best way to do this?? I've got an Itunes library which I'd rather not lose (is Itunes easy to backup?), and some photos & documents which I can easily transfer onto my external harddrive, but everything else can go. The only restore disk I have is an Advent System Recovery disk by the looks of things.

Suggestions on a postcard please!! :D
 
Personally when ever it's rebuild time I just go out and get a new hard drive and build fresh on that, did it last weekend on a nice new 640GB samsung drive for less than £50. Got my old 160GB drive going spare now but it has a full backup of all my old stuff on it at least.
 
asuming your itunes library is in your my music folder as usual (check itunes preferences for the path), copy the whole thing off including the xml files etc.

once youve rebuild and installed itunes just pop it all back in the same path and hey presto (sometimes you have to import the xml library file).
 
a1ex2001 said:
Personally when ever it's rebuild time I just go out and get a new hard drive and build fresh on that, did it last weekend on a nice new 640GB samsung drive for less than £50. Got my old 160GB drive going spare now but it has a full backup of all my old stuff on it at least.
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Is this easy to do ? as i'm thinking of putting a new hard drive in my Dell dimension 5150, but i'm also going to need a new psu as it looks like mine has had it, for the record the hard drive that is in it is a "DELL WD1600JS-75NCB2 160GB 7.2K 3.5 8MB SATA II HARD DRIVE" and the one i'm thinking of putting in is a "Western Digital Caviar Blue 640GB SATAII 16MB Cache 3.5 inch Internal Hard Drive OEM " so just wondered if it would be ok, also how would i reinstall windows XP as i'm not very computer literate, i suppose in reality i would probably have to pay someone to do this for me, but i'm just wondering will the above hard drive be compatible, any advice would be appreciated :)
 
If you have access to an external hard drive, copy everything you want to save on to this.

What you need to do is get a program that will take all your drivers from your computer, and save them in to a file. Save this on the external hard drive along with the setup file of the drivers program you used to save your drivers.

Once you have done the above, FORMAT your hard drive.

I find the easiest way to do this is to insert your operating system disk and follow the on screen instructions.

When you get to the partition part of the installation, I'd split the hard drive in to two parts. A smaller part (say 30 - 40gb) and the larger remaining part.

The smaller part is the C:\, where you will install Windows and any further programs you wish to install on to the computer. The larger part, call it the D:\ (or whatever you want) and assign 'My Documents' to the D:\.

Finish installing Windows and go to My Computer to verify you have 'two' hard drives (it's the same one but partitioned).

You can now install the drivers from the backup you made.

The reason why I do the above is because when my PC becomes slow and annoying all I have to do is make a backup of my drivers, format C:\, and re-install windows to C:\. The D:\ (which is My Documents) is untouched, therefore you don't have to copy it to an external drive for backup, only to copy it back over again!

I'm sure there is a more comprehensive guide on the internet with more detail, this is just a rough overview. It's very easy, and very helpful when you come to formatting an ageing computer to prolong it's life.
 
How you reinstall xp depends on what your copy of xp came on. While it's pretty easy to do, you TG. also need to other things, like fit the new hard drive into the pc and unless you're happy doing that it's best getting someone else to do it for you.

a1ex2001 I think I bought the exact same model of drive at the weekend too! isn't life strange :)
 
Thanks for all your comments and help, just another couple of things though.

I find the easiest way to do this is to insert your operating system disk and follow the on screen instructions
Click to expand...

My PC never came with one of these, so can i make a copy from my hard drive and if so how ? and then would it be a different procedure than if i had an original disk ?

What you need to do is get a program that will take all your drivers from your computer, and save them in to a file
Click to expand...

What program would do this, and is it a free one or do you have to purchase it.
 
To back up drivers before a re-install, I used this Driver Magician Lite, it worked just fine, you forget how much driver crap you have till you see the list it backs up.
Also, Outlook, I used something I can't find to back-up my emails and address book from Outlook :shrug:....actually I might have buggered that bit up, I got all my emails but not addresses, could be operator error though that one.
 
Well I formatted the bugger and it's running like a dream now. I'm struggling to partition the c:\ drive though - I've followed all manner of online guides and I can't get it to partition at all!! Any suggestions??
 
If it's working fine then leave alone. Do you need to have it portioned?
 
It was more because of the suggestion above - ie put everything on a partition, and then just reinstall the windows drive when it slows down again!!
 
i want to do this to mine. so its nice and clean/fresh but i had no windows xp disc with mine.
does this mean i cant do it?
thanks
ian
 
candlestick said:
Well I formatted the bugger and it's running like a dream now. I'm struggling to partition the c:\ drive though - I've followed all manner of online guides and I can't get it to partition at all!! Any suggestions??
Click to expand...


Partition magic will do the trick :)
 
^^ Partition Magic is a great bit of software.

This won't be of much use to you now, but something to bear in mind should you need to re-install again.

During the install of XP, when it asks you which drive you want to install to select your drive but then manually set your partition to say 60GB. Once Windows has finished installing, goto computer management (right click my Computer, select Manage) and then select Disk Management on the left hand side. You will notice on Disk 0 you have empty space next to the 60GB partition, right click there and then you can create a 2nd partition. Useful for keep your data seperate from where Windows is installed.
 
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